Studying schizophrenia with mini-brains

This project is a new collaboration between Maastricht University and Radboud University Medical Center, and two companies, MeOmics and MaxWell Biosystem. Together, the team aims to create a patient-based testing platform to improve treatments for schizophrenia, a serious mental illness. By combining academic knowledge of brain biology with industry expertise in product development, the team will explore how personalized “mini-brains” can speed up the search for better medicines. Schizophrenia affects about 0.7–1.3 % of people worldwide. It disrupts emotions and perception of reality, making it one of the leading causes of disability. Current drugs do not work for everyone and often cause strong side effects, leaving many patients without effective help. New and more precise treatment options are urgently needed to reduce the personal and societal costs of this condition, which include long hospital stays, loss of employment, and heavy pressure on families and healthcare systems. The team will use patient cells reprogrammed into stem cells to grow midbrain organoids, small, three-dimensional brain models that mirror a region of the brain involved in schizophrenia. These organoids can be created from any patient’s cells, allowing truly personalized testing. The team will compare organoids from people with a high genetic risk (the 22q11 deletion) and from diagnosed schizophrenia patients and study how neurons communicate and how these “mini-brains” respond to existing antipsychotic medicines, identifying which treatments work best for which patient profiles. The project will deliver a validated laboratory platform predicting how a person with schizophrenia might respond to specific drugs. This innovation can help choose the right medication and reduce side effects, ultimately improving the quality of life for patients.